PICTURESQUE VIEWS ON THE NIGER. 
Among the various instances in which the most simple natural phenomena have mocked the sagacity of theorists, is the fact, that, while the 
numerous outlets of the great river of Central Africa have presented themselves palpably to the observation of Geographers, its course and termi- 
nation have eluded detection, and have remained during so many ages in impenetrable mystery. One of the principal reasons for this, may have 
been the apparent insignificance of the channels, by which the volume of its waters is poured into the sea. The Niger, and the more magni- 
ficent Chadda, swollen at least thirty-five feet above their level in the dry season, by the periodical rains which they have collected, the former from 
the western, and the latter from the eastern parts of Sudan, or Nigritia — flow together in one mighty stream, more than a hundred miles. 
They are then subdivided into numberless branches and creeks, intersecting in every direction the Delta, of no less than one hundred and sixty 
miles square — formed by their deposition of alluvium — whence they are received into twenty-two estuaries, preparatory to their final discharge 
into the "multitudinous ocean." This distribution over such an extent of coast, is indispensable; the rise and fall of the sea-tide being only 
six feet, it therefore could not otherwise carry olF the floods. It was, indeed, difiicult to imagine that the channel, by Avhich we sought the main 
stream, could be an outlet of a river of the first order. Where we entered, it was not more than thirty yards wide, but this was a mere 
connecting creek leading to the prmcipal channel, which afterwards opened out, and gradually increased as the divergents were passed, until we 
came to the magnificent undivided river, about three-quarters of a mile wide. 
